Deleting messages in Gmail

Because of some fundamental differences between the way Gmail works and the way other email providers work, it is important to understand a few key points before deleting any messages in Gmail.

Contents

• Deleting Messages
• Deleting Can Be Dangerous
• Oops. I deleted a message by accident!
• Deleting from the "Sent Mail" Folder
• Gmail Help Center

Deleting Messages

Gmail is different than other email services. Among the differences, Gmail was one of the first email services to give so much storage space that you can keep essentially all your email without having to worry about running out of room. To go along with that, Gmail's interface is designed to make "archiving" (saving your mail outside the inbox) easy and generally discourages the deleting of messages. In fact, early versions of gmail didn't even have a delete button. (The delete feature was hidden in a menu.)
When you no longer need a message in your inbox, don't delete. Either "archive" it or "report spam" for unsolicited email.

Deleting Can Be Dangerous

While there are many reasons to prefer archiving to deleting in Gmail (see the Gmail blog for examples), there may still be times you wish to delete messages. When you do so, you should be careful. There are two important things you should know before you delete anything in gmail:

• The delete button will remove an entire conversation, not a single message. If you wish to delete a single message, you must use the menu on the upper right corner of the message display, next to the "Reply" button.
• Deleting a message in one view will remove it from all views. Gmail stores only a single copy of any message. Even though you may be able to see the same message under the inbox, multiple labels, the "Sent Mail" link and the "All Mail" link, there is in fact only a single message. If you delete it from any one of these places, it will be gone from all of them. If you wish to remove a message from a single view, either "archive" it (to remove it from the inbox) or use the menu at the top of the screen to remove a label.

Oops. I deleted a message by accident!

Don't worry. Just go to the "Trash" link, select the message and choose "Move to Inbox". You have 30 days after deleting a message to rescue it.
You should avoid using the "Empty Trash now" link or "Delete Forever" button, since you are sure to discover an important message you need to retrieve immediately after. Once the trash has been emptied (or after 30 days), deleted messages are gone for good and cannot be recovered.

Deleting from the "Sent Mail" Folder

"Sent Mail" is not a folder. You should think of it simply as a quick way of searching for all the messages that you have sent. Messages can't be removed from this view and if you delete conversations from here, they will be deleted everywhere in your account.
If you prefer to have a "Sent Mail" view that you can modify according to your needs, consider adding a filter that applies a label to all emails from your email address. Then you can manage this label as you like by adding it to or removing it from conversations.

Gmail Help Center

More information about deleting is available from the Gmail Help Center .